Recently we released a completely redesigned version of our platform, which has been about 3 years in the making. The decision to work on a completely new concept was not an easy one.

However, if we want to reach our goal of being 1.000 times faster than programming and being the easiest way to make applications, this decision was extremely necessary. In this series of posts I will explain the reasoning behind our strategy, and talk about a few things yet to come along that strategy.

Programming applications is hard. It requires a lot of logical knowledge, and often a completely different way of thinking than business users are used to. There are many technical issues that need to be resolved during development.

All of those technical issues need to be automated in order for business users to be able to work with a platform such as Triggre. That is ultimately what is means to be easy to use in my perception; that business users can quickly understand what they need to do to make or change an application.

More functionality versus less functionality

When you make an application using any technology, the more functionality it provides, the more you can make with it. From the perspective of our customers therefore, more functionality is preferred over less functionality. Simply because if Triggre offers more possibilities, customers can use it in more cases.

The simplicity / functionality trade-off

So we want an easy to use platform that offers a lot of functionality. And that is exactly where the trade-off between simplicity and functionality occurs. We can show this in a 2-axis drawing, where on the one axis we have functionality and on the other we have ease of use, giving us 4 quadrants:

Quadrant 1 – nothing box

If a platform is not easy to use and does not have much functionality … it does nothing right. That’s why this quadrant is called the nothing box. You never, ever want to work on, or with, and application or platform that is in this quadrant.

Quadrant 2 – tech corner

Here we find tools that offer a lot of functionality, and consequently require a deep technical understanding to use. These are often very powerful tools or platforms, such as Microsoft Visual Studio or Adobe Photoshop for example. In terms of platforms, these are the rapid application development platforms that many developers use.

Quadrant 3 – tool shed

In the tool shed, we find easy to use applications and platforms that are good a one or a few things. Think of it like a real tool shed, where each tool has a single purpose. A screw driver is best used for fastening screws for example. While it can be used to make a hole in the wall, you’d probably prefer another tool for such a task.

Quadrant 4 – holy grail

This is the ultimate category, the jacks of all trades that are also easy to use. Quadrant 4 is where every application wants to be, but hardly any end up.